Brainlitter » Asian Domain Name Scam Breakdown

Asian Domain Name Scam Breakdown

The following post of mine and video was pretty popular regarding the Computer Department Help Desk, so I thought I’d share another one that is zipping around the ole Interweb.  The idea/scam is that your domain/company name is desired by someone in Asia and that you have an opportunity to stake your company name on their various domain suffixes (.asia, .cn, .co, .hk, etc.) before they do.

I played along with them for a little bit as I was curious to see just how much $$ they were looking for.  While $5.00 for the cheapest domain isn’t expensive, I don’t actually need or want additional domains and the fact that they try to “package it for my convenience” is particularly crafty, for the untrained eye. Consider yourself trained now.  Winking smile  $360/year for domains I don’t need … no thanks.

So here goes…

 

What

You get an email, similar to the one’s I share below regarding your company name and the fact that apparently someone in China is trying to register the domain name.  They are “offering” to you the fact that you can object and secure the domain names before they give them away.

Of course, nobody in China is looking to be itgroove.  A simple WHOIS (lookup) of domain names tells them how to reach me, thus I get spammed with this “offer”.

 

So What

When you get these messages, destroy them. Really, there is nothing else to learn here other than, if you wanted to see the whole thread play out.

 

Now What

Enjoy the ride…

From: Cornelia Chen [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2012 5:57 PM
To: Sean Wallbridge
Cc: info
Subject: About itgroove Brand Registration
Importance: High

(Letter to the President or Brand Owner, thanks)

Dear President,

We are the department of Asian Domain Registration Service in China. I have something to confirm with you. We formally received an application on November 28, 2012 that a company which self-styled “Gawa International Co.,Ltd” were applying to register “itgroove” as their Net Brand and some domain names through our firm.

Now we are handling this registration, and after our initial checking, we found the name were similar to your company’s, so we need to check with you whether your company has authorized that company to register these names. If you authorized this, we will finish the registration at once. If you did not authorize, please let us know within 7 workdays, so that we will handle this issue better. Out of the time limit we will unconditionally finish the registration for “Gawa International Co.,Ltd”. Looking forward to your prompt reply.

Best Regards,

Cornelia Chen
Registration Department
Tel:+86-551-5184482 || Fax:+86-551-5123308
<3AA838DD-FE1B-40f1-879B-516A6F416AC9.png>
Address:No.358 QianShan Road,ShuShan District,Hefei,Anhui,China
2012-11-28

 

My Reply

From: Sean Wallbridge
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2012 7:47 AM
To: Cornelia Chen
Subject: Re: About itgroove Brand Registration.

We did not authorize this.

 

Dear Sean,

Thanks for your confirmation. According to your reply, I know that your company has not authorized the company “Gawa International Co.,Ltd” to register the Net Brand and domain names. As soon as receiving the application of Gawa International Co.,Ltd we checked and found ” itgroove ” is your company’s registered trademark. So we sent email to inform you. I would like to inform you that the domain names registration is open in China, Gawa International Co.,Ltd also has the right to apply for the available domain names. For this reason Gawa International Co.,Ltd
is also an licit applicant and we have no right to reject them. Your company only own the preferential right to register these names.

At present, we haven’t passed their application, we need your opinion. If your company consider these names of importance to your company’s business or interest, I suggest that your company register these names first so as to avoid confusion or speculation. Of course, each company has their own idea. If you don’t think their application will affect your company in the future, or you have no marketplace in Asia and you don’t intend to develop business in Asia, then my suggestion is your company give up these names so that we can finish registering for them as per our duty. Please give me your company’s decision as soon as possible in order to handle this issue better.

Following Net Brand and domain names are applied for by Gawa International Co.,Ltd:
Net Brand:
Itgroove
Domain Name:
itgroove.asia
itgroove.cn
itgroove.co
itgroove.com.cn
itgroove.hk
itgroove.in
itgroove.net.cn
itgroove.tw

Best Regards,
Cornelia Chen
Registration Department
Tel:+86-551-5184482 || Fax:+86-551-5123308
<3AA838DD-FE1B-40f1-879B-516A6F416AC9.png>
Address:No.358 QianShan Road,ShuShan District,Hefei,Anhui,China
2012-11-30

 

My Reply

Oh my goodness.  Sounds like I should secure these quickly.
How much are the domain names?

 

Dear Sean,

Many thanks for your confirmation.

Following is the procedure of dispute those Domain names and register:
1. We send the application form to you.
2. You fill in the application form and return it via email (scaned) or fax.
3. We will stop their application and register these domain names for your company.
4. We will send the invoice of payment to you.
5. You transfer the payment to us according to the Bank information on the invoice and fax the payment proof to us.
6. When we received your payment proof, we will finish all the registration for your company within two workdays.
7. You will be awarded the certificates of Net Brand after 10 workdays.

Here is the cost below:

Domain name: Price/Per Year
itgroove.asia 5.00 USD/Per Year
itgroove.cn 35.00 USD/Per Year
itgroove.co 15.00 USD/Per Year
itgroove.com.cn 35.00 USD/Per Year
itgroove.hk 30.00 USD/Per Year
itgroove.in 15.00 USD/Per Year
itgroove.net.cn 35.00 USD/Per Year
itgroove.tw 40.00 USD/Per Year
Net Brand: Itgroove 150.00 USD/Per Year
Total Cost 360.00 USD/Per Year

If your company decide to dispute and register these Domain names, please let us know in time so that we can send the Application Form to you.

Best Regards,
Cornelia Chen
Registration Department
Tel:+86-551-5184482 || Fax:+86-551-5123308
<3AA838DD-FE1B-40f1-879B-516A6F416AC9.png>
Address:No.358 QianShan Road,ShuShan District,Hefei,Anhui,China
2012-11-30

 

And that’s where I left it…

2 responses to “Asian Domain Name Scam Breakdown”

  1. I received the same email a couple of weeks ago. I took it seriously at first, but when I checked the company that is purporting to want to register domain names similar to mine, I found that the company was dissolved in 2010. My direct questions to PIDC Asia were not answered, instead I kept getting the same email. Alarm bells started ringing, and after checking things out further, I realised that this is one big scam.

    By the way, I was contacted by someone named Zoe Wei with the following address: [email protected], with the contact information as follows:

    Zoe Wei
    Registration Department
    Tel:+86-551-65184482 || Fax:+86-551-65123308
    Address:No.358 QianShan Road,ShuShan District,Hefei,Anhui,China
    2013-01-04

  2. Same story here with 2 requests “Regarding domain Nam​e and Internet Keywo​rd​”, one in November 2012, a certain “Cornelia Chen” applying for “Gawa International Co. Ltd”:

    Cornelia Chen
    Registration Department
    Tel:+86-551-5184482 || Fax:+86-551-5123308
    Address:No.358 QianShan Road,ShuShan District,Hefei,Anhui,China
    2012-11-20

    and one in January 2013, “John” applying for a certain “Bao Yuan Ltd”

    John
    General Manager
    Shanghai Office (Head Office)
    3002, Nanhai Building, No. 854 Nandan Road,
    Xuhui District, Shanghai 200070, China
    Web: http://www.ygnetwork-ltd.com

    “We also suggest this company should change another name but they stick to this name so if your company want to prevent anybody from using these domains, the only way is to register these CN/ASIA domains and internet keyword.” (John)

    “If need, please let us know in time, we can send an application form to you. If you think the registration of ” Gawa International Co.,Ltd ” or the use of following domain names will not bring any negative effect to your company, I suggest you can give up to register these domain names, then we can only accept ” Gawa International Co.,Ltd ” application unconditionally.” (Cornelia Chen)

    No need.

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